Coburn Acquires. 8th Electrical Distributor Deal of the Year

Coburn Supply, a multi-industry distributor headquartered in Texas serving the electrical, plumbing, HVAC and waterwork segments in eastern Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee through over 60 locations recently announced its second acquisition of the year, this time in the electrical industry.

The company acquired the assets of Bay Electric Supply’s League City, Texas location (Houston area). According to its website, Bay Electric has / had two locations (another in Humble, TX). It is not known if this location is remaining open, had previously closed or is part of the sale.

Bay City had been serving the League City market for the past 44 years, having been opened in 1978. The company is / was an ABB distributor, serving the residential and commercial market.

Given that the business was family-owned, it appears that it either retrenched to a single location or, as is not uncommon, decided that after 45 years, perhaps the owners sought to retire and hence why this was a property / asset sale. If so, this would continue the trend of companies selling due to lack of succession. This business model of larger companies acquiring the assets of small (1-3 location) distributors is expected to continue and be a strong trend over the next few years as “ownership ages out.”

According to BuzzFile the company had revenues of about $5 million recently. According to Coburn’s press release, the company acquired the property and assets and will be retaining the staff. The company served both consumers and pros, which fits with the Coburn profile. Coburn announced that the location will serve customers with electrical and HVAC products.

In February the company acquired Chris-More’s three Tennessee locations. Chris-More is a plumbing wholesalers and helped Coburn expand it’s reach into Tennessee, now giving the company four locations in the state.

Coburn is a member of The Commonwealth Group, a member owned plumbing buying group that represents over 115 plumbing distributors as well as an IMARK Group member. According to RocketReach, corporate revenues were approximately $600M in 2021. The company is now into its 4^th generation.

Electrical Wholesaling ranked them #131 in their 2022 Top 150 (based upon 2021 revenues.) Presumably this is their electrical only revenues as it would be less than $40 million.

Congratulations to Coburns. Based upon the company profile, it is presumed that it will seek comparable businesses, or open new locations, into Tennessee while doing any backfill. Future acquisitions could fit any of its core disciplines – electrical, HVAC or plumbing as it can diversify with the right physical location.